1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a support mechanism for an object in a vacuum chamber whereby motion can be fed through into the vacuum chamber from the exterior. More particularly, the invention relates to the application of such devices in lithographic projection apparatuses.
2. Description of Related Art
For the sake of simplicity, the projection system may hereinafter be referred to as the xe2x80x9clensxe2x80x9d; however, this term should be broadly interpreted as encompassing various types of projection system, including refractive optics, reflective optics, catadioptric systems, and charged particle optics, for example. The radiation system may also include elements operating according to any of these principles for directing, shaping or controlling the projection beam of radiation, and such elements may also be referred to below, collectively or singularly, as a xe2x80x9clensxe2x80x9d. In addition, the first and second object tables may be referred to as the xe2x80x9cmask tablexe2x80x9d and the xe2x80x9csubstrate tablexe2x80x9d, respectively. Further, the lithographic apparatus may be of a type having two or more mask tables and/or two or more substrate tables. In such xe2x80x9cmultiple stagexe2x80x9d devices the additional tables may be used in parallel, or preparatory steps may be carried out on one or more stages while one or more other stages are being used for exposures. Twin stage lithographic apparatuses are described in International Patent Applications WO 98/28665 and WO 98/40791, for example.
Lithographic projection apparatuses can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, the mask (reticle) may contain a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target area (die) on a substrate (silicon wafer) which has been coated with a layer of photosensitive material (resist). In general, a single wafer will contain a whole network of adjacent dies which are successively irradiated via the reticle, one at a time. In one type of lithographic projection apparatus, each die is irradiated by exposing the entire reticle pattern onto the die in one go; such an apparatus is commonly referred to as a wafer stepper. In an alternative apparatusxe2x80x94which is commonly referred to as a step-and-scan apparatusxe2x80x94each die is irradiated by progressively scanning the reticle pattern under the projection beam in a given reference direction (the xe2x80x9cscanningxe2x80x9d direction) while synchronously scanning the wafer table parallel or anti-parallel to this direction; since, in general, the projection system will have a magnification factor M (generally  less than 1), the speed v at which the wafer table is scanned will be a factor M times that at which the reticle table is scanned. More information with regard to lithographic devices as here described can be gleaned from International Patent Application WO 97/33205.
In a lithographic apparatus, the size of features that can be imaged onto the wafer is limited by the wavelength of the projection radiation. To produce integrated circuits with a higher density of devices and hence higher operating speeds, it is desirable to be able to image smaller features. Whilst most current lithographic projection apparatuses employ ultraviolet light generated by mercury lamps or excimer lasers, it has been proposed to use shorter wavelength radiation of around 13 nm. Such radiation is termed extreme ultraviolet (EUV) or soft x-ray, and possible sources include laser plasma sources or synchrotron radiation from electron storage rings. An outline design of a lithographic projection apparatus using synchrotron radiation is described in xe2x80x9cSynchrotron radiation sources and condensers for projection x-ray lithographyxe2x80x9d, J B Murphy et al, Applied Optics Vol. 32 No. 24 pp 6920-6929 (1993).
Other proposed radiation types include electron beams and ion beams. These types of beam share with EUV the requirement that the beam path, including the mask, substrate and optical components, be kept in a high vacuum. This is to prevent absorption and/or scattering of the beam, whereby a total pressure of less than about 10xe2x88x926 millibar is typically necessary for such charged particle beams. Wafers can be contaminated, and optical elements for EUV radiation can be spoiled, by the deposition of carbon layers on their surface, which imposes the additional requirement that hydrocarbon partial pressures should generally be kept below 10xe2x88x928 or 10xe2x88x929 millibar. Otherwise, for apparatus using EUV radiation, the total vacuum pressure need only be 10xe2x88x923 or 10xe2x88x924 mbar, which would typically be considered a rough vacuum.
Further information with regard to the use of electron beams in lithography can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,122 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,151, as well as from EP-A 0 965 888.
Working in such a high vacuum imposes quite onerous conditions on the components that must be put into the vacuum and on the vacuum chamber seals, especially those around any part of the apparatus where a motion must be fed-through to components inside the chamber from the exterior. For components inside the chamber, materials that minimize or eliminate contaminant and total outgassing, i.e. both outgassing from the materials themselves and from gases adsorbed on their surfaces, should be used. It would be very desirable to be able to reduce or circumvent such restrictions.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved support mechanism for an object table of a lithographic projection apparatus having a vacuum chamber whereby motion can be fed-through to allow control from the outside of the vacuum chamber of the position of the object table in the chamber.
According to the present invention, these and other objects are achieved in a lithographic projection apparatus that has a radiation system for supplying a projection beam of radiation; a first object table provided with a mask holder for holding a mask; a second object table provided with a substrate holder for holding a substrate; and a projection system for imaging an irradiated portion of the mask onto a target portion of the substrate, characterized by: a vacuum chamber having a wall enclosing at least one of said first and second object tables, the vacuum chamber wall having at least one wall aperture therein; an elongate beam extending through the wall aperture, a part of the beam extending into the vacuum chamber to support the one abject table therein and a part of the beam extending outside the vacuum chamber, whereby displacement of the beam outside the vacuum chamber causes displacement of the object table inside the vacuum chamber; a seal for sealing the wall aperture whilst allowing displacement of the beam; and positioning component for displacing the beam, thereby to displace the object table within the vacuum chamber.
Current lithography apparatuses are designed for use in clean room environments and therefore some steps have conventionally been taken to reduce possible sources of contamination of wafers that are processed by the apparatus. However, conventional designs of wafer, mask and transfer stages are very complicated and employ large numbers of components for sensor and drive arrangements. Such stages also need to be provided with large numbers of signal and control cables and other utilities. The present invention avoids the difficult and detailed task of making such large numbers of components vacuum-compatible, or replacing them with vacuum-compatible equivalents, by adopting the principle of locating as many components and functions as possible outside the vacuum chamber. The present invention thus avoids the need to vacuum-proof many or most of the numerous components, by providing appropriate mechanical feed-throughs with innovative sealing arrangements. Likewise, the present invention avoids difficulties in reducing vibrations inevitable in vacuum apparatuses, particularly where powerful pumps are provided, by isolating as far as possible vibration sensitive components from the vacuum chamber wall.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the aperture(s) comprises an elongate slot sealed by a sliding plate whereby the object or object table is displaceable in two orthogonal directions by lateral and longitudinal displacement of the beam. Preferably the beam is directly driven by a linear motor for longitudinal displacement and is driven via the sliding plate for lateral movement. The linear motors preferably act against balance masses which may be separate or combined.
The present invention also provides a device manufacturing method that includes: providing a substrate which is at least partially covered by a layer of energy-sensitive material; providing a mask containing a pattern; using a projection beam of radiation to project an image of at least part of the mask pattern onto a target area of the layer of energy-sensitive material. The device manufacturing method also includes, during the step of projecting an image, at least one of the mask and substrate are mounted on an object table accommodated in a vacuum chamber having a wall, the vacuum chamber wall having at least one wall aperture therein; the object table being supported by an elongate beam extending through the wall aperture, a part of the beam extending into the vacuum chamber to support the object table therein and a part of said beam extending outside the vacuum chamber, whereby displacement of the beam outside the vacuum chamber causes displacement of the object inside the vacuum chamber; the wall aperture being sealed by a seal allowing displacement of the beam; and the object table being positioned by positioning means for displacing the beam, thereby to displace the object table within the vacuum chamber.
In a manufacturing process using a lithographic projection apparatus according to the invention a pattern in a mask is imaged onto a substrate which is at least partially covered by a layer of energy-sensitive material (resist). Prior to this imaging step, the substrate may undergo various procedures, such as priming, resist coating and a soft bake. After exposure, the substrate may be subjected to other procedures, such as a post-exposure bake (PEB), development, a hard bake and measurement/inspection of the imaged features. This array of procedures is used as a basis to pattern an individual layer of a device, e.g. an IC. Such a patterned layer may then undergo various processes such as etching, ion-implantation (doping) metallisation, oxidation, chemo-mechanical polishing, etc., all intended to finish off an individual layer. If several layers are required, then the whole procedure, or a variant thereof, will have to be repeated for each new layer. Eventually, an array of devices will be present on the substrate (wafer). These devices are then separated from one another by a technique such as dicing or sawing, whence the individual devices can be mounted on a carrier, connected to pins, etc. Further information regarding such processes can be obtained, for example, from the book xe2x80x9cMicrochip Fabrication: A Practical Guide to Semiconductor Processingxe2x80x9d, Third Edition, by Peter van Zant, McGraw Hill Publishing Co., 1997, ISBN 0-07-067250-4.
Although specific reference may be made in this text to the use of the apparatus according to the invention in the manufacture of ICs, it should be explicitly understood that such an apparatus has many other possible applications. For example, it may be employed in the manufacture of integrated optical systems, guidance and detection patterns for magnetic domain memories, liquid-crystal display panels, thin-film magnetic heads, etc. The skilled artisan will appreciate that, in the context of such alternative applications, any use of the terms xe2x80x9creticlexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cwaferxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cdiexe2x80x9d in this text should be considered as being replaced by the more general terms xe2x80x9cmaskxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9csubstratexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ctarget areaxe2x80x9d, respectively.